

Glass .Xi^l4- 



What Happened 
At Emporia 



V^'^""^' 



Stenographic and Newspaper Reports 



How Mr. White took back, apologized 
and promised to retract 



l/f^^.-j 



From the Steographic Report: 

Long: "That is the record. Do you admit you were 
wrong?" 

White: "Absolutely." 

Long: "The only thing about this that I regret is that 
these charges have gone out all over Kansas, read 
by many that will never see this answer here and 
by many that will never see this admission of 
William Allen White's that he was wrong when 
he made these charges." 



? ^'09 



What Happened at Emporia 



Senator Long's speech at Emporia 
on the 10th of June^attracted atten- 
tion all over the entire state, not only 
because he fully and frankly an- 
swered the charges made against him 
by Mr. William Allen White, but be- 
cause during that meeting Mr. White 
openly admitted, when forced to do 
so by Senator Long, that some of his 
charges were absolutely untrue. Mr. 
White promised Senator Long in the 
presence of the Emporia audience 
that he would give his retraction the 
same circulation as he gave his 
charges, but he has not done so. 
These same charges are still being 
distributed by Mr. Bristow, although 
he knows that White has admitted 
their untruth and that even the 
newspapers friendly to his candidacy 
repudiated the White charges. 

The prepared speech of Senator 
Long, which was necessarily lengthy, 
has been printed and should be read 
by every voter. In order to get the 
lull effect of it the reader should un- 
derstand that Senator Long met and 
■explained every charge in the indict- 
ment. The audience, which had not 
Taeen so friendly at first, realized the 
unfairness of the attack on him and 
■cheered him enthusiastically. Mr. 
White, who had taken a seat on the 
stage, was kept covered with confu- 
sion and repeatedly forced to bob up 
and admit that Long was right. It 
was a great stage setting for a great 
speech. 

The stenographic report includes 



the interruptions and confessions of 
Mr. White and is worth reading as 
an illustration to go with the pre- 
pared speech. Following are extracts 
from the stenographic report. In his 
introduction Senator Long said: 

"There has been considerable spec- 
ulation as to why I came to Emporia 
to open this campaign. Ordinarily 
possibly I might select some other 
place, although I know of no other 
town in which I would have pre- 
ferred to open the campaign, but as 
I am to discuss an article written by 
William Allen White, I conceived the 
idea that it was best to come to the 
place in Kansas where he is best 
known. You know William Allen 
White as I know him. You know he 
is the most noted fiction writer in 
Kansas, and that is true whether he 
is trying to write facts or fiction." 

White Tries to Laugh 

When Senator Long took up the 
charge against his vote on the re- 
organization of the Northern Pacific 
railroad in which he had supported 
the unanimous recommendation of 
the Committee on Judiciary and the 
wishes of every Senator and Member 
of Congress from the states through 
which the road ran, the fight against 
the resolutions being lead by Lem- 
uel Quigg of New York, he said: 

"And there I was helpless, without 
White or Bristow to advise me 
against it — Bristow in the Postoffice 
Department supporting everything I 
did, and White here in Emporia do- 
ing the same. And here on this 
proposition you and Bristow are lin- 



Ing up with Lemuel Quigg of New 
York. 

"You know what a great chaser of 
Wall Street Champ Clark is. Well, 
he voted for this. (White laughs.) 

"It is all very well for you to treat 
this in a manner of levity here to- 
night among the people who know 
you, but there are people in the state 
of Kansas who do not know you, and 
who believe that what you say is the 
truth. They believe you had the 
facts before you to make the state- 
ment. You cannot deceive the people 
here who know you, but all people 
do not know you and they think that 
when you are writing an article like 
this you are not writing fiction. I 
know and these people here know 
that you write fiction all the time." 

White's first admission came on the 
charge that Long voted for a land 
grant which took ten million acres 
from the people and gave it to the 
Atlantic and Pacific Railroads, Mr. 
Long answered, and as he finished. 
White said: 

White: "I should think that you 
are right on this." 

Long: "Yes, I am right on this 
proposition; you are wrong." 

White: "Yes, I am wrong." 

Long: "And Mr. White admits he 
is wrong on this proposition." 

White: "Absolutely." 

Long: "We have reduced the 
counts in this indictment. The court, 
in instructing the jury on the 4tli 
of August, will say, do not consider 
charge No. 3." 

White Applauds Long 

Senator Long, turning to White, 
said: 

"And why, when you were refer- 
ring to my Wall Street votes, did you 
not mention the most conspicuous 
one of all — my vote on Free Silver?" 
White: "Because it was right." 
Long: "Right from your stand- 
point. You thought it was right, but 
that vote was the one that defeated 
me for Congress." (Strong applause 
— White joining in the applause.) 



Again turning to White, Mr. Long 
said: 

"I do not know whether you are 
cheering my vote, or because I was 
left at home." 

White: "I was cheering your 
vote." 

Long: "He says he was cheering 
my vote. Yes, but that vote was re- 
ferred to all over the Seventh dis- 
trict as a Wall Street vote. And so, 
in making the list of Wall Street 
votes, why did they leave that out? 
He explains it. He thought I was 
right on that vote. What he means 
by Wall Street votes is that they are 
votes cast differently from what he 
thinks they ought to be cast. (More 
applause.) You are getting in a lit- 
tle late. You are getting on to this 
Populistic procession band wagon a 
little late. You go back in the old 
Seventh district and they will tell 
you there today that the most con- 
spicuous Wall Street vote was this 
vote of mine cast in favor of th^ 
money power and against free silver 
and against the people." 

White's Aid to Long's 
Election 

Referring to White's charge that 
the railroads elected Long to the 
Senate in 1903, Senator Long ex- 
plained the contest of that year. Most 
of the votes he first received came 
from his Congressional district, and 
he was finally elected by the with- 
drawal of Governor Stanley, and the 
Stanley support going to Long, after 
consultation with Governor Stanley 
and his managers, including William 
Allen White. Senator Long said if 
the railroads elected him to the Sen- 
ate it was done by the supporters of 
Governor Stanley who abandoned him 
and one of the instruments through 
which the work was done was Wil- 
liam Allen White. Long, pointing to- 
ward White, said: 

"And he took that course after I 
had cast every one of the 16 votes 
that he has referred to as having 



been Wall Street votes. That sup- 
port of Governor Stanley came to me 
and made me senator, for it gave me 
the caucus nomination. And so, if 
the railroads elected me, here is the 
principal instrument that did it — 
(placing hand on White's head). This 
is what you said after you had 
turned the trick for the railroads." 
(Reads article from Gazette endors- 
ing Long, in which White says Long 
was once appointed state senator by 
the Governor.) 

"You see even in those days Bill 
was careless with his facts. The idea 
of the Governor appointing any one 
senator! Every school child knows 
that cannot be done under our con- 
stitution. But when God gave Wil- 
liam Allen White a brain for fiction 
and imagination He made it a little 
defective on the facts. And so, while 
I know that this is an error of facts, 
you also know that those of us who 
have been friends of William Allen 
White have never looked at him for 
facts. 

"This is what William Allen White 
thought about. his handiwork in 1903 
after I was elected senator and after 
I had cast those 16 votes and they 
were on the record. And I placed 
side by side the answer to the charge 
in that article that those 16 votes 
were cast in the interest of Wall 
Street; I place side by side the action 
of William Allen White in helping to 
make me senator, and this statement 
from the Emporia Gazette after he 
had helped to do so. You can take 
your choice as to whether he was 
right then and is wrong now or as to 
whether he was wrong then and right 
now. 

"Another man somewhat closely 
connected with this campaign — I re- 
fer to Mr. Bristow — was in Washing- 
ton in the Postoffice Department and 
in close consultation with me during 
the time these 16 votes were cast, and 
the difference between Mr. Bristow 
and Mr. White with reference to my 
election to the Senate was this, that 
while Mr. White came in at the elev- 
enth hour, Mr. Bristow was for me 
from the beginning. He supported 
me loyally for senator after those 
votes were cast, and this is what Mr. 
Bristow said in the Salina Journal of 
March 5, 1903: (Reads from Salina 
Journal a strong endorsement of Sen- 
ator Long.) 



Not Bad Yet 

When Senator Long began his dis- 
cussion of the charges against his 
votes in the Senate, he said: 

"The first charge against my rec- 
ord in the Senate was on a vote I 
cast on March 4, 1906, and so I did 
not get bad for three years after I 
was elected." 
White: "You are not bad yet." 
Long: "I am not bad yet, and I 
thank you for it." 

White Begs Pardon 

Senator Long read the charge made 
that he had voted to keep the coal, 
oil, and asphalt lands in the hands 
of the railroads and made his expla- 
nation. He said: 

"The only trouble with that charge 
is that it is not true. Just like so 
much (turning to White) that you 
put into your writings when you are 
attempting to write facts, but when 
you are in reality writing fiction." 

White: "I beg your pardon." 

Long: "You beg my pardon. Yes, 
you beg my pardon tonight, but you 
made this charge and there are thou- 
sands of people in Kansas who have 
heard of you that believe this charge 
because you made it and because 
they think you are writing facts in- 
stead of fiction." 

White: "Will you kindly outline 
what you would like to have pub- 
lished over my signature about 
that?" 

Long: "Yes, when I get through. 
with you. As Mr. Morgan said in his 
article, here is the document on 
which you proceeded. (Holds up the 
document.) You did not have time 
to investigate these votes as I have 
investigated them. You took this 
document, changed it, and signed 
your name to it." 

White: "No, sir." 

Long: "That is practically what 
was done. And now what I want 
done is that you publish this speech 
of mine and write your name at the 
bottom and say, 'I agree with the 
above.' That is what I want you to 



do and that is what I expect you to 
do before this campaign is over, be- 
cause your statement on this matter 
is no more true than many others 
that you have been guilty of making 
in this document that was prepared 
to order." 



White Against Roosee- 
velt 

After reading the very strong let- 
ter President Roosevelt wrote in fa- 
vor of the ship-subsidy bill in which 
the President said that Senator Long 
and the others who voted for this 
bill rendered a great and patriotic 
service, and which bill Mr. White and 
Mr. Bristow denounced, Senator Long 
said (turning to White) : 

"When it comes to choosing be- 
tween your saying that I voted with 
Wall Street, and President Roosevelt 
saying that I voted right and did 
patriotic service, you will pardon me 
but I will stand with the President. 
Side by side, good people of Emporia, 
I place what William Allen White 
says about my vote on the shipping 
bill with what his great and good 
friend, Theodore Roosevelt, says 
about it. You know that he is a 
spokesman for the President." 

White: "Never." 

Long: "I waivt you to understand 
that there has been an impression 
like that going all through this com- 
munity and all through Kansas." 

White: "No, sir. You are mis- 
taken." 

Long: "And I am glad to have you 
refute it tonight. It helps a great 
deal to understand the exact rela- 
tion you bear to this, for a great 
many people here and elsewhere 
thought that when you spoke you 
represented the sentiments of the 
President. I am glad to know that 
you represent your own sentiments 
and that he is still able to express his 
himself." 



White Promises Re- 
traction 

When Senator Long came to the 
charge that in the vote on the rail- 
road employers' liability bill he had 
dodged and hid in the cloak room, he 
said: 

"If I had been guilty of this charge 
I would resign my seat in the Senate 
and never ask anything further ot 
the people of Kansas. I am sur- 
prised that Mr. White and Mr. Bris- 
tow would make this charge. It is 
the most serious and outrageous one 
of all, and there is absolutely no 
foundation for it. (Turning to 
White) I was not in the cloak room. 
I was sitting in my seat in the Sen- 
ate. Why did I not vote? The rec- 
ord shows the reason. It shows that 
I was present." 

White: "I was wrong." 

Long: "You were wrong. When 
the call was made to ascertain if 
there was a quorum, of course I an- 
swered to my name. I was there. I 
was not in the cloak room, but you 
understand the purpose of a general 
pair. I had one with Mr. Dubois, 
When he was present I could vote; 
when he was absent I could not vote. 
I finally voted. You say I was drag- 
ged in by the scruff of my neck by 
my conscience and voted for this bill. 
Here is the record:" (Reads from 
Record.) 

Long: "That is the record. Do 
you admit you were wrong?" 

White: "Absolutely." 

Long: "Do you admit that the 
senator that you helped to make did 
not flee to the cloak room and did 
not have to be brought by the scruff 
of' the neck to vote?" 

White: "I will say so tomorrow." 

Long: "All right. Very well. You 
will see that that is the easy way to 
do this and that when my speech is 
printed in full there shall be at the 
bottom of it: 'I fully concur in the 
above. William Allen White.' " 

"This charge wounded me more 
than any other that you made, for in 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Hill II 



013 787 778 8 ^ 



